Invisible World by Suzanne Weyn

Author:Suzanne Weyn
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Scholastic Inc.
Published: 2012-06-10T16:00:00+00:00

On the first day out, I was watching the white-capped ocean roll by when the nun dressed in blue approached me. She clutched a book to her side and I noticed its title was in Spanish: El Castillo Interior. Father had insisted that, from a young age, Kate and I study several languages, and Spanish was among them. I could translate the title: The Interior Castle.

The nun greeted me, her veil flapping like a sail.

“Good morning to you, Sister. My name is …” Here I hesitated. How did I want to introduce myself? “My name is Betty-Fatu,” I continued without further hesitation. In my heart, I knew that forevermore it would always be my name.

“I am Sister Mary Carmen. Pleased to meet you,” she replied, her English accented with Spanish.

“How do you like your book, Sister?” I asked.

Sister Mary Carmen’s smile became radiant. “Very wonderful! It is by Saint Teresa of Avila.”

“What’s it about?” I asked.

“Saint Teresa was very holy, and loved God very much,” Sister Mary Carmen began. “One day she had a vision from God. She saw a large crystal egg, and in it were seven mansions.”

“She actually saw this?” I asked. I wondered if it might have been a dream.

Sister Mary Carmen nodded seriously. “Saint Teresa was a great mystic. She went into trances of ecstasy in which she experienced direct contact with God’s love. They say she seemed to be somewhere else altogether. I often wonder if her soul traveled. Personally, I believe it must have risen out of her physical being.”

Of course I thought of Bronwyn and the times I’d seen her so limp and deeply asleep as though her soul was — as she’d claimed — truly elsewhere.

“I’m sure she was,” I said.

Sister Mary Carmen opened her book and perused it. “And there was something else mysterious about Saint Teresa,” she said, and then hesitated, as though considering whether or not to speak the next words on the tip of her tongue.

“Tell me,” I prodded.

“Sometimes she levitated,” Sister Mary Carmen whispered.

I wasn’t sure I’d heard her correctly. Could it be? “Do you mean she floated in air?”

Sister Mary Carmen nodded, her eyes wide with the importance of what she’d just imparted. “That’s what people reported. They claimed to have seen her rise from the ground when she was in a deep trance.”

My next words were so bold, I couldn’t believe I was actually speaking them.

“Did anyone accuse her of being a witch?”

To my surprise and relief, Sister Mary Carmen did not seem offended by my question. “They did, in a way,” she replied. “Some of her friends suggested that her visions might be coming from the Devil and not from God at all.”

“Did they try to hurt her?”

“Saint Teresa did it to herself. She punished herself in various ways to drive out the Devil if he was indeed in her. She stopped only when a priest told her he was sure her visions and trances were from God. I admire her so much.”

“Saint Teresa sounds like an interesting woman,” I said.

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